What can I do to help with the environment?

What can I do at home (or on my farm) to improve water quality in my watershed?
Whether you live in town or in an apartment, have your own home or acreage or manage many acres on your farm, there is something that you can do to improve water quality. It can be as simple as collecting rain water in barrels and watering plants with it throughout the summer, putting in a rain garden to help slow infiltration of water into the ground as it comes off your roof, and maintaining good waterways on the farm. Or, it can be as complex as planting buffer strips of a combination of trees, shrubs, native grasses and wildflowers along a stream to filter run-off and trap sediment, rather than farming that area. Often we forget that what we do on our land and at our home affects the water quality of everyone downstream of us.